“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory.” These are the
words of an eyewitness of Jesus, perhaps His best friend on this earth—the Apostle John. With
these words St. John writes of the Incarnation—the unfathomable donning of human flesh, bone,
and blood by the Creator God, entering into His own creation through His Son Jesus Christ, born of
the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem.
John was an old man by the time he penned his Gospel. After the whirlwind of activity surrounding
the ministry of Jesus had ground to an abrupt and despairing halt in His crucifixion, a greater
whirlwind had arisen with His resurrection and the heady days of spreading this incredible news
outward from Jerusalem. In the breathtaking wake of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances, the
Church was born.
John was there for all of this. He accompanied Jesus throughout His ministry. He stood in the dark
shadow of the Cross as Jesus was crucified. He talked and broke bread with the resurrected Christ.
He participated in early church councils, as believers began to organize for the purpose of
spreading the gospel. Unlike the other disciples he wasn’t martyred early on for his faith. And over
a long life he had the chance to ponder and reflect on the events he’d witnessed. The words of
John’s Gospel reflect not only his own memories, but the interpretive guidance of the Holy Spirit,
whom he’d received on the day of Pentecost.
The eighteen verses of John’s Gospel in today’s lesson could spawn an entire series of sermons. In
fact, there are single words in this passage that provide enough material for an entire sermon. This
morning, rather than trying to cover it all, I’m going to briefly provide some brushstrokes that will help
fill in some of the picture of who Jesus is, using certain images from our Gospel passage. Over the
past several services I’ve focused on particular words endowed with potent meaning. These have
had to do mostly with the names and titles of Jesus. This morning I’d like to continue with some
specific word studies that I hope you’ll find helpful.
There are four key words that St. John offers for our consideration. The first is “word.” This one
may win the prize as the single least adequate word translation from Greek to English in the whole
New Testament. Volumes have been written about the meaning of the Greek word Logos—“word.”
Simply put, Logos doesn’t translate neatly into any single, English word. To show how broad and
encompassing this word is, in my Greek-English Lexicon the usage and definitions occupy about
three pages of fairly fine print. The bottom line is that the Logos—the word—is not simply
something spoken, but is the entire wisdom and reason and order behind the universe. It’s a
massive concept.
Both the Greek and Jewish readers of this Gospel would’ve caught the impact of this word. If the
universe is what we see, the Logos is all that stands behind it. If the universe is the body of
creation, the Logos is the intricate design of its DNA. It’s the meaning and design of all of creation.
The great Jewish-Greek philosopher Philo held that the Logos is the oldest thing in the cosmos, and
the instrument through which God made the cosmos.
Putting this together, William Barclay paraphrases for us what John is actually saying here. He
writes: “For centuries you have been thinking and writing and dreaming about the Logos, the power
which made the world, the power which keeps the order of the world, the power by which men think
and reason and know, the power by which men come into contact with God. Jesus is that Logos—
that Word—come down to earth. The mind of God became a person.”
During this past week our loving attention has been given to the birth of a little baby in that lowly
feeding trough in Bethlehem. Over the centuries the faithful have worshipped and adored Him.
Many don’t understand this. Some think that worshiping this baby is a kind of blasphemy, or
idolatry, or at the least, a bit excessive. The only One worthy of our worship and adoration is God
himself. In fact, I was shocked to hear the words of an Episcopal priest belonging to a well-known
organization favoring pretty liberal interpretations of the Bible and the Christian faith. She stated
outright that worship of Jesus is basically idolatrous.
But as we read the first chapter of John’s Gospel, we see that Jesus’ close friend has concluded
precisely that Jesus is divine. He’s worthy of our worship. In fact worship is the only appropriate
response once we realize who Jesus is! John reports the staggering truth that God’s full divinity
abides in Jesus Christ. The Word was with God, the Word was God, and the Word became flesh.
Let me make this as clear as I can: If we don’t regard Jesus as the divine Son of God, we’re not only
deviating from the historic Christian faith, but from the truth reported in the First Century by John the
Apostle, who says, “We have seen his glory.”
The second word that I’d like to focus on is “life.” Life is another favorite theme of St. John’s. In fact
it brackets the entire book. In today’s reading, verse 4 says, “What has come into being in him was
life, and the life was the light of all people.” Then, at the end of the main body of his Gospel, John
writes that he’s written this book “so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son
of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” In between these verses the
word “life” appears some three dozen times throughout the Gospel.
What does John mean by “life”? Well, one clue is John’s frequent use of the Greek phrase “zoe
aionios”, which means eternal life. This isn’t just life that goes on forever. Rather, it has something
to do with both the quantity and the quality of life. Nicky Gumbel points out that, depending on how
this life is going for you, a life that simply goes on forever might not necessarily sound like a good
thing.
But eternal life is life that taps into or is part of God’s life--that pure wellspring of joy and vitality—life
the way it was always meant to be, that bubbles ever upward to eternity.
What John is saying is that this zoe, this good life, has come into the created order in the person of
Jesus Christ. It was not here before, and it is here now. As a result of Jesus coming to earth, each
of us has the opportunity to share in the very life of God. And the way we do this is simply by
believing in the One He’s sent. In verses 12 and 13 John writes, “But to all who received him, who
believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of
the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God." Jesus is the doorway to life at its fullest, and we
can simply walk through that door by believing in Him.
In verse 4 of our passage, John points out that the life Jesus gives Is indeed the light to all people. It’
s the word “light” that provides our third image of Jesus. Like the words “logos” and “life”, “light” has
rich symbolic meaning. What comes to your mind when you think of light? What does light do?
From our earliest days of childhood we instinctively know the answer. Light brings order to chaos. It
dispels the fear that comes from not being able to sense what’s around us. It reveals things to us; it
helps us to see clearly (even when some of what we see may be disturbing.) It brings both good
and evil to clear exposure. It provides us with guidance and helps us to see the right way we should
go. The light of Christ is all of this, and more.
When John uses the word “light” he almost always connects it with revelation and salvation. In order
to have salvation and real life, we need God. And Jesus is the One who lights the way to God. We
need to know God, and Jesus is the vehicle of that knowledge. He’s the one who shows us
what the Father is like. In fact, Jesus says, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” He not only
provides the light, but He is the light. In verse nine of our passage, John writes, “The true light,
which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” He’s the true light, the genuine light, the
real thing, who came not to enlighten a select few spiritually evolved people, but to give light to all
who believe. We were reminded of this on Christmas Eve when we lit candles celebrate our Savior’s
birth.
The last word John offers us for our meditation is the word “flesh.” This is the time of year in which
we celebrate the fact that God loves us so much, he took on flesh to accomplish the means of our
eternal salvation. The very word “Incarnation” means the taking on of flesh. John writes, “the Word
became flesh and lived among us.” The meaning, the reason, the wisdom of God, the very agent of
creation became a warm little baby in swaddling clothes. He who is fully God became fully human.
This was a staggering and absolutely unthinkable idea at that time. To the Greco-Roman world the
thought of the transcendent God taking on crude matter would simply not be within the realm of
possibility. Even to the Jews, the idea of God becoming man would have been blasphemous. Yet in
Jesus’ words and John’s descriptions, this becomes the only conclusion we can come to when we
weigh all of the evidence.
Think of the words that Jesus himself said: I am the bread of life! I am the way, the truth, and the
life. I am the light of the world! The bread that I will give for the life of the world, is my flesh. I and
the Father are one. The Word became flesh. If Jesus’ words are true, how can the Incarnation be
anything other than the fulcrum of human history? The point at which supernatural converges with
natural, Creator with created, pure Spirit with flesh, and immortality with mortality. The birth of Jesus
is the ushering in of the real new age, in which we have unobstructed access to the Father through
the Son—life in God, beginning now on earth, and bubbling upward forever.
I’d like to close with an excerpt of a sermon delivered by St. Augustine some 1600 years ago. In it, I
think he captures well the mystery of the Incarnation we celebrate at Christmas. He says: “He by
whom all things were made was made one of all things. The Son of God by the Father without a
mother became the Son of man by a mother without a father. The Word Who is God before all time
became flesh at the appointed time. The maker of the sun was made under the sun. He Who fills
the world lays in a manger, great in the form of God but tiny in the form of a servant; this was in such
a way that neither was His greatness diminished by His tininess, nor was His tininess overcome by
His greatness.”
This year as we begin anew to contemplate the life, death, resurrection, ascension, and glorious
return of this one who first appeared as a tiny baby in a manger, may we remember that He is Word
and flesh, life and light. But most of all, may we never lose sight of His greatest gift to all of us—the
gift of Himself. For the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen His glory.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
words of an eyewitness of Jesus, perhaps His best friend on this earth—the Apostle John. With
these words St. John writes of the Incarnation—the unfathomable donning of human flesh, bone,
and blood by the Creator God, entering into His own creation through His Son Jesus Christ, born of
the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem.
John was an old man by the time he penned his Gospel. After the whirlwind of activity surrounding
the ministry of Jesus had ground to an abrupt and despairing halt in His crucifixion, a greater
whirlwind had arisen with His resurrection and the heady days of spreading this incredible news
outward from Jerusalem. In the breathtaking wake of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances, the
Church was born.
John was there for all of this. He accompanied Jesus throughout His ministry. He stood in the dark
shadow of the Cross as Jesus was crucified. He talked and broke bread with the resurrected Christ.
He participated in early church councils, as believers began to organize for the purpose of
spreading the gospel. Unlike the other disciples he wasn’t martyred early on for his faith. And over
a long life he had the chance to ponder and reflect on the events he’d witnessed. The words of
John’s Gospel reflect not only his own memories, but the interpretive guidance of the Holy Spirit,
whom he’d received on the day of Pentecost.
The eighteen verses of John’s Gospel in today’s lesson could spawn an entire series of sermons. In
fact, there are single words in this passage that provide enough material for an entire sermon. This
morning, rather than trying to cover it all, I’m going to briefly provide some brushstrokes that will help
fill in some of the picture of who Jesus is, using certain images from our Gospel passage. Over the
past several services I’ve focused on particular words endowed with potent meaning. These have
had to do mostly with the names and titles of Jesus. This morning I’d like to continue with some
specific word studies that I hope you’ll find helpful.
There are four key words that St. John offers for our consideration. The first is “word.” This one
may win the prize as the single least adequate word translation from Greek to English in the whole
New Testament. Volumes have been written about the meaning of the Greek word Logos—“word.”
Simply put, Logos doesn’t translate neatly into any single, English word. To show how broad and
encompassing this word is, in my Greek-English Lexicon the usage and definitions occupy about
three pages of fairly fine print. The bottom line is that the Logos—the word—is not simply
something spoken, but is the entire wisdom and reason and order behind the universe. It’s a
massive concept.
Both the Greek and Jewish readers of this Gospel would’ve caught the impact of this word. If the
universe is what we see, the Logos is all that stands behind it. If the universe is the body of
creation, the Logos is the intricate design of its DNA. It’s the meaning and design of all of creation.
The great Jewish-Greek philosopher Philo held that the Logos is the oldest thing in the cosmos, and
the instrument through which God made the cosmos.
Putting this together, William Barclay paraphrases for us what John is actually saying here. He
writes: “For centuries you have been thinking and writing and dreaming about the Logos, the power
which made the world, the power which keeps the order of the world, the power by which men think
and reason and know, the power by which men come into contact with God. Jesus is that Logos—
that Word—come down to earth. The mind of God became a person.”
During this past week our loving attention has been given to the birth of a little baby in that lowly
feeding trough in Bethlehem. Over the centuries the faithful have worshipped and adored Him.
Many don’t understand this. Some think that worshiping this baby is a kind of blasphemy, or
idolatry, or at the least, a bit excessive. The only One worthy of our worship and adoration is God
himself. In fact, I was shocked to hear the words of an Episcopal priest belonging to a well-known
organization favoring pretty liberal interpretations of the Bible and the Christian faith. She stated
outright that worship of Jesus is basically idolatrous.
But as we read the first chapter of John’s Gospel, we see that Jesus’ close friend has concluded
precisely that Jesus is divine. He’s worthy of our worship. In fact worship is the only appropriate
response once we realize who Jesus is! John reports the staggering truth that God’s full divinity
abides in Jesus Christ. The Word was with God, the Word was God, and the Word became flesh.
Let me make this as clear as I can: If we don’t regard Jesus as the divine Son of God, we’re not only
deviating from the historic Christian faith, but from the truth reported in the First Century by John the
Apostle, who says, “We have seen his glory.”
The second word that I’d like to focus on is “life.” Life is another favorite theme of St. John’s. In fact
it brackets the entire book. In today’s reading, verse 4 says, “What has come into being in him was
life, and the life was the light of all people.” Then, at the end of the main body of his Gospel, John
writes that he’s written this book “so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son
of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” In between these verses the
word “life” appears some three dozen times throughout the Gospel.
What does John mean by “life”? Well, one clue is John’s frequent use of the Greek phrase “zoe
aionios”, which means eternal life. This isn’t just life that goes on forever. Rather, it has something
to do with both the quantity and the quality of life. Nicky Gumbel points out that, depending on how
this life is going for you, a life that simply goes on forever might not necessarily sound like a good
thing.
But eternal life is life that taps into or is part of God’s life--that pure wellspring of joy and vitality—life
the way it was always meant to be, that bubbles ever upward to eternity.
What John is saying is that this zoe, this good life, has come into the created order in the person of
Jesus Christ. It was not here before, and it is here now. As a result of Jesus coming to earth, each
of us has the opportunity to share in the very life of God. And the way we do this is simply by
believing in the One He’s sent. In verses 12 and 13 John writes, “But to all who received him, who
believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of
the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God." Jesus is the doorway to life at its fullest, and we
can simply walk through that door by believing in Him.
In verse 4 of our passage, John points out that the life Jesus gives Is indeed the light to all people. It’
s the word “light” that provides our third image of Jesus. Like the words “logos” and “life”, “light” has
rich symbolic meaning. What comes to your mind when you think of light? What does light do?
From our earliest days of childhood we instinctively know the answer. Light brings order to chaos. It
dispels the fear that comes from not being able to sense what’s around us. It reveals things to us; it
helps us to see clearly (even when some of what we see may be disturbing.) It brings both good
and evil to clear exposure. It provides us with guidance and helps us to see the right way we should
go. The light of Christ is all of this, and more.
When John uses the word “light” he almost always connects it with revelation and salvation. In order
to have salvation and real life, we need God. And Jesus is the One who lights the way to God. We
need to know God, and Jesus is the vehicle of that knowledge. He’s the one who shows us
what the Father is like. In fact, Jesus says, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” He not only
provides the light, but He is the light. In verse nine of our passage, John writes, “The true light,
which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” He’s the true light, the genuine light, the
real thing, who came not to enlighten a select few spiritually evolved people, but to give light to all
who believe. We were reminded of this on Christmas Eve when we lit candles celebrate our Savior’s
birth.
The last word John offers us for our meditation is the word “flesh.” This is the time of year in which
we celebrate the fact that God loves us so much, he took on flesh to accomplish the means of our
eternal salvation. The very word “Incarnation” means the taking on of flesh. John writes, “the Word
became flesh and lived among us.” The meaning, the reason, the wisdom of God, the very agent of
creation became a warm little baby in swaddling clothes. He who is fully God became fully human.
This was a staggering and absolutely unthinkable idea at that time. To the Greco-Roman world the
thought of the transcendent God taking on crude matter would simply not be within the realm of
possibility. Even to the Jews, the idea of God becoming man would have been blasphemous. Yet in
Jesus’ words and John’s descriptions, this becomes the only conclusion we can come to when we
weigh all of the evidence.
Think of the words that Jesus himself said: I am the bread of life! I am the way, the truth, and the
life. I am the light of the world! The bread that I will give for the life of the world, is my flesh. I and
the Father are one. The Word became flesh. If Jesus’ words are true, how can the Incarnation be
anything other than the fulcrum of human history? The point at which supernatural converges with
natural, Creator with created, pure Spirit with flesh, and immortality with mortality. The birth of Jesus
is the ushering in of the real new age, in which we have unobstructed access to the Father through
the Son—life in God, beginning now on earth, and bubbling upward forever.
I’d like to close with an excerpt of a sermon delivered by St. Augustine some 1600 years ago. In it, I
think he captures well the mystery of the Incarnation we celebrate at Christmas. He says: “He by
whom all things were made was made one of all things. The Son of God by the Father without a
mother became the Son of man by a mother without a father. The Word Who is God before all time
became flesh at the appointed time. The maker of the sun was made under the sun. He Who fills
the world lays in a manger, great in the form of God but tiny in the form of a servant; this was in such
a way that neither was His greatness diminished by His tininess, nor was His tininess overcome by
His greatness.”
This year as we begin anew to contemplate the life, death, resurrection, ascension, and glorious
return of this one who first appeared as a tiny baby in a manger, may we remember that He is Word
and flesh, life and light. But most of all, may we never lose sight of His greatest gift to all of us—the
gift of Himself. For the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen His glory.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
The Word Became Flesh
John 1:1-18
John 1:1-18
December 30, 2007
Fr. Dan Tuton
Fr. Dan Tuton